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PIP Candidate: Healthcare Crisis Stems from Political Status

By on July 10, 2016

CAROLINA, Puerto Rico – The gubernatorial candidate for the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP), Sen. María de Lourdes Santiago, said Sunday that the island’s political status issue must be solved in order to stop the healthcare system’s crisis.

When considering “the health crisis, it is important to talk about our link [to the United States]. There are candidates who will tell you it isn’t important to talk about the status, that it’s more important to talk about issues regarding the economy, issues of immediacy,” Santiago said during her participation at the convention of the Puerto Rico Community Pharmacies Association being held at the Ritz-Carlton, San Juan.

She added that to manage the island’s healthcare situation, it is important “to talk about our political inferiority.”

“The political issue is relevant in any measure presented,” the senator said, while criticizing proposals benefiting large corporations over community pharmacies.

PIP gubernatorial candidate Sen. María de Lourdes Santiago

PIP gubernatorial candidate Sen. María de Lourdes Santiago

“The absurd policy of granting privileges to those who have the most comes from being colonized,” she further stressed, adding that “dependence only produces poverty.”

“Since the ’70s, when federal transfers began to increase, the more transfered, the less Puerto Rico developed economically,” Santiago said, noting that economic growth of negative 2 percent is expected for next year.

The legislator also proposed the creation of a universal healthcare plan.

“Only with a universal plan can we ensure the deserved access to health,” she said, declaring that “without a universal plan in Puerto Rico, talking about the right to healthcare is a fantasy.”

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